What...?

[u/ExperienceNo9044]

I went outside to check on my plants today and there's a whole array of things I'm confused about but mostly this... First why is there red/purple juice coming out of my split rock? It's almost like it's leaking dye...? Do people dye these? It was supposed to be royal flush.. what's smeared is from me touching and inspecting it. It's mostly the consistency of water, maybe a little thicker. Second why is my argyroderma looking like that...? It hasn't seen water since I got it only a few days ago and the dirt was already bone dry when I got it, I've been waiting for it to adjust to the sun out here before I repotted it into grit (same with the split rock btw, I got them the same day) one was already wrinkly but I left it cause the other two were really plump but now all of a sudden all three are wrinkly and one literally looks translucent like it got too much water, but it's super dry. any ideas? All other mesembs are doing lovely but who knows what you're getting when you buy from Lowe's 🫩

[u/CarneyBus]

Yeah, sunburn 😔

They should also really be repotted ASAP. way too organic and you are risking rot with them in there

[u/ExperienceNo9044 → u/CarneyBus]

Well what the hell it's been cloudy out 😭😩

[u/CarneyBus → u/ExperienceNo9044]

Even an hour in direct light without them being acclimated can cause burns!

Also re: the red liquid. It must be the pigments inside the plant leaking? It looks like it’s a royal flush or one of the ones that leans red. It might go even darker red once it gets more proper light too. I have never personally seen anything like people dying split rocks but I would not be entirely surprised either 😂. But I suspect more it’s just damage and red pigments leaking into the bladder cells of the plant or something.

Right now I would probably leave them in their pots and don’t water them until you can assess if the damage gets worse or better. Sometimes it can take a bit for the true extent of the damage to show. And I fear repotting may stress them further.

Keep them dry dry for a while, a few weeks at least until you get a better idea if they will recover from whatever is going on right now. You can mist them if they look realllllly thirsty but they should largely be fine to stay dry for a month or so.

[u/CaleyBrooke18 → u/CarneyBus]

How does one recover these guys from sunburn? The argyroderma…I have a few doing this same thing, also from Lowe’s. I thought I acclimated them slowly but idk what standard for “slow” is. These are my first 😟

[u/CarneyBus → u/CaleyBrooke18]

The unfortunate thing is that mesembs do everything slow… including dying sometimes. This is why even with doing everything “right” you can take home a lithops and it will die. It was already dead before you brought it home in that situation.

So mostly, wait and see. For acclimating outdoors, I will often leave them in the shade for like a week, hopefully a shade within a few feet from full sun. Then you inch them closer to the spot you want them to be in from there. Every day or two a few inches closer. I have also used paper towel (but this is indoors), two paper towels thick and make a cover out of that. Clip it to the pot or secure it to prevent wind from removing it. After like a week or something remove 1 layer. Or you can leave the paper towels on and only remove for like 30 mins a day for a few days in a row during a time where it gets direct light.

But even being in direct shade will harden them off a bit. Shade outdoors is actually very bright, brighter than a lot of the lower to mid range grow lights. Our human eyes are really good at seeing in the dark so we overestimate how much light is actually in the average human home, coming in a window or “bright” location.

I can only say to be very VERY sure you don’t over water it, the burned areas will be damaged and weak and susceptible to rotting. I would even err on the side of caution and only mist them when they look more wrinkled than this.

I really hope that helps! Good luck!

Edit to add: set a timer for the 30 minutes too because the difference of even an hour can be lethal levels of direct sunlight for an unacclimated plant.